1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of solid electrolyte capacitors based on tantalum, in particular those with an elevated specific capacitance of greater than 70,000 μFV/g.
2. Description of the Related Art
Predominantly used solid electrolyte capacitors with a very large active capacitor area and thus a small size suitable for mobile communications electronics are those with a tantalum pentoxide barrier layer applied onto a corresponding conductive tantalum metal support, making use of the stability thereof (“valve metal”), the comparatively high dielectric constant and the insulating pentoxide layer with a highly uniform layer thickness which may be produced electrochemically. The metallic support, which simultaneously constitutes one electrode (anode) of the capacitor, consists of a highly porous, sponge-like structure which is produced by pressing and sintering ultrafinely divided primary structures or secondary structures which are already sponge-like. The stability of the compression moulding is here essential to further processing to yield the sintered article, which constitutes the actual support structure or anode of the capacitor. The surface of the support structure is electrolytically oxidised (“formed”) to yield the pentoxide, the thickness of the pentoxide layer being determined by the maximum electrolytic oxidation voltage (“forming voltage”). The counter-electrode is produced by impregnating the sponge-like structure with manganese nitrate, which is thermally converted into manganese dioxide, or with a liquid precursor of a polymer electrolyte and polymerisation. The electrical contacts to the electrodes are provided, on the one hand, by a tantalum or niobium wire placed in the press mould prior to sintering and, on the other hand, by the metallic capacitor casing which is insulated relative to the wire. The strength with which the wire is sintered to the anode structure is another significant property for further processing to form the capacitor.
The capacitance C of a capacitor is calculated using the following formula:C=(F·∈)/d where F denotes the capacitor surface area ∈ the dielectric constant, d the thickness of the insulator layer.
The quality of such solid electrolyte capacitors substantially depends on the formation of the sponge-like anode structure, in particular the branching of the open pore structures from relatively large down to ultrafine pores. After formation of the insulator layer, one third of which grows into the original anode structure and two thirds of which grows thereon, the sponge-like structure must, on the one hand, still comprise a continuous electrically conductive structure and, on the other hand, provide a communicating open pore structure, so that the cathode formed therein can completely contact the surface of the insulation layer.
Developments in recent years have led to the use of ever more finely divided primary powders, in particular because modern communications electronics operate at a lower voltage. The consequently possible reduced insulation layer thickness makes it possible, with a finer primary structure dimension, still to obtain a continuous anode structure and, after anodisation, still to provide a communicating pore structure.
The sponge-like anode structure is here produced by finely divided primary and secondary structures starting from a generally multistage production method for powder agglomerates, together with pressing and sintering of the agglomerates, wherein excessive sintering is prevented by using sintering protection doping with nitrogen and/or phosphorus, and earlier also boron, silicon, sulfur, arsenic. Sintering activity, which was here sometimes excessively reduced for the purposes of agglomeration, was counteracted by simultaneous reduction (“deoxidising agglomeration”), the simultaneous deoxidation reaction bringing about an increase in surface atomic mobility.
Economically viable production of tantalum capacitors thus entails a number of compromises in order to obtain not only intermediates with favourable further processing characteristics, bit also the desired capacitor characteristics.